By the time she's reached ten on her keep list, she's finding it increasingly difficult to keep adding. Piper adds a couple more and decides a dozen is plenty for her to work from. She emails Jason a list at least a day before his deadline. Feeling satisfied she can now concentrate on Polly's party madness.
"P, enough work. We should have started getting ready an hour ago" Polly whines.
"Remind me to have a chat with security and reminding them not to be scaring off people for simply speaking to me."
"That's important, go ahead and do that. I'll pull out some clothing options for you." Piper rolls her eyes, Polly doesn't even notice. "Then we'll start on hair and make-up!"
A couple of hours later they are ready to go. A drink to calm the nerves. Then Piper calls for the security team to take them wherever the hell Polly set up. Before exiting the car Piper puts on her fake smile, as she becomes 'royalty' at least for the press. As the night progresses Piper becomes especially uncomfortable. Tired of all the fake people, who wouldn't give her the time of day if not for her family's money or reputation. Guys eyeing her like she's some sort of trophy. Others making asses out of themselves by acting like they can do something for her, like somehow 'being with them' will complete her life. She's no longer feeling as harshly against all the security fuckers who never let anyone approach her. Polly on the other hand is having the time of her life, spending half the time all heart eyed for her boyfriend. Piper just sticks close to their table, slowly nursing fruity mixed drinks. 'I'll be happy when this night is over. It's not at all how I wanted to spend my birthday.'
"Donovan!"
"Yes Miss Chapman." The head of security heads to her, "how may I help you?"
"I think I've had enough of this gathering. Is the team ready? I'd like to go home now."
"Will miss Harper be joining you?" he carefully asks, trying hard to sound polite and helpful.
"By the way she's been acting around her boyfriend tonight, I'd say no. You can ask her if you want. I wasn't even going to bother." Her eye rolling showing her lack of interest.
"Very well. The team will be ready in five"
"Okay. I'm going to pay my tab and I'll be ready"
"Yes Miss Chapman. Thank you for giving me enough time to get them in position."
Piper chooses to sleep late the next day, hoping to avoid Polly for as long as possible. 'I really need a new friend that's easier to deal with than Pol. One can hope I guess.' Piper checks her phone for texts, and voicemails. Seeing no one she wants to bother with, she checks her emails, and is surprised to find one from Jason thanking her for getting the list in so quickly and seeing what day she'll be back at the facility. She decides that the Monday schedule has been working, so why change it. 'Only I'm not going up there until Sunday. That will give me time to work more on sculpting my radio brand.'
Polly barrels into her room, "P, why didn't you tell me you were going home last night. And why the hell did you bail so early on your own party?"
"I wasn't feeling it Pol," Piper sighs. "I had enough of all the fake people. I had one halfway decent conversation the whole night, and even that bored me after five or ten minutes."
"Why didn't you say anything"
"Pol, you were all about your boyfriend and slyly checking out every guy in the room." Piper shakes her head "I'm sick of being seen as some sort of royalty. Of stuck-up bitches only giving me the time of day because my family's money or image. And guys looking at me like I'm some sort of blonde trophy or a piece of meat, like I should be grateful for their attention or something."
"Oh P. I thought you were as excited about a big flashy night of drinking and dancing as I was." She looks her bff straight in the eye. "Please tell me that there's some part of your birthday that you liked."
"Pol. I appreciate your effort, but I'm just not feeling that scene anymore. I want to be around people who want to know and understand the real me, not what the media feeds them, ya know"
"I'll try to pay more attention to that in the future." Reluctantly she asks "Hey P, your not mad at me or anything are you?"
"No Pol! I'm not. I'm sure it sounds odd for a twenty-one year old to be over the glitz and glamour. But that stuff means less and less to me." Piper pauses trying to carefully state the rest of her thoughts. "I enjoy chilled out evenings with great conversation so much more than trying to fit myself into the picture that the press has been drawing all my life."
"That's deep P. Hey, I'm spending the day with Pete so I need to get ready. But let me know if you if you wanna talk more about this later."
"Thanks Pol! I'm might take you up on that at some point. But for now I wanna get lost in my media work."